FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

I’m banging my head at the moment trying to get the 53 going. >:(

After sitting in the shed for weeks and not doing anything I finally pulled the motor and gear box out to start on the repairs. I knew I had a “race” noise in the gearbox so pulled that down first. The case hardening was buggered on input and out put shafts at the centre race so had to pull other gearboxes apart to find replacements. Replaced needle bearings in shaft, cluster and reverse idler – all late model and larger needle bearings. Couldn’t find any  spare gear box welsh plugs, so ordered spares from the big island and after waiting for an eternity, decided to reshape the old ones, reuse them and seal with sikaflex. Two days later the new ones turned up … too late.
gear box is finished and so onto the motor.

Pull off the rocker gear, get another set re-bushed and balanced, tick…. pull out the push rods and lifters.. hunt around the shed and find another set of re-ground lifters….tick,  two bent push rods .. mmm have a couple of spares somewhere.. find two !  …one bent and one non matching… bugger.

Ok….easy you might think, but these are not Holden pushrods!  After many weeks of searching and ..a big thanks to the South Australian Hillman Owners Club I had ten of a certain type spare second hand push rods, but not quite the same as the ones in the motor… buggar again.
Measure them and weight match them and I have six of each type ..tick.

I didn’t take the head off (only have one 3 ¼” head gasket spare) but took the sump off to inspect her bottom… every thing looks ok except for a little edge mark on a couple of the cam lobes.. nothing to worry about.  Also it is the first time I had seen the cam…wild… huge sharp peaks on the inlet lobes and very soft peaks on the exhaust … very sharp probably about an 82 / 40 grind. Anyway, touched up the edges of a couple of lobes and put it all back together and re-installed the sump making sure the swing baffles are in the right position.

Every thing back in the car and hooked up now and we wind the motor over to push some oil around and there is a “knocking” noise…oh shit!  Scratch my head and wonder what  the f….!!! Maybe a baffle plate or shroud around the oil pump out of position and the crank is knocking against it .. that’s what it sounds like …one revolution , one knock.

Out with the motor and gear box again, process of elimination:
Drop the sump, crank with the starter ..knock still there.
Pull out the oil pump…knock still there
Pull out the fuel pump...knock still there
Listen again …sound like cam shaft area…. maybe chipped the cam gear when the rocker arm broke and bent push rods.

Looks like the weekend will be taken up removing the rocker gear, push rods, lifters, cranking over and listening, remove harmonic and front cover and check gears for damage.. 

I love grey motors but chasing a noise is giving me the willies. ???

regards


Weddo

Yep Weddo, the things we do. While you're doing that I'll be running around Eastern Creek. I hope you find your noise and that it goes back together ok.

Colin.

Good luck Colin and I hope you don't gain any noises ;D

regards


Weddo

I tell ya I'm slack !!

OK.. Every things back together (bell housing off a later model and starter hooked up) and no knocking noise ...great.. but I have a scraping noise...shit.

Start again.. but this time with an old mate 75+ years old.... "used to build these for racing boats and get em to screem at 7000rpm all day long"
Stethoscope out, scraping in the sump. Off with the sump and scrape mark under no 3 mate says " probably scraping all the time but you wouldn't hear it for the noise of the motor" panel beat the baffle plate and it's now clear.
Sump back on, put on new clutch plate and pressure plate, bolt on bell housing again...no scraping but bloody knocking noise is back !!!!

Off with the sump again, and my mate says its brobably some thing quite simple but we have to find it!
So while we are at it we might as well pull the motor right down, Cam out... a bit bruised on some of the lobes, so my mate sits down at my work bench for an hour or so with his little oil stone and WD40 and hand hones and polishes the entire cam shaft.

Head off, decoke, out with the valves, check for no bends, blue them for contact.. all ok back together.
Righto.. out with the pistons, clean up bore with a bit of very fine emery, decoke the piston tops and clean the skirts and ring grooves.


Have a look at this my mate says, I can see the cause of the knocking....


TO BE CONTINUED....

I'm just about to head of to Bathurst with five mates and my fifth wheeler. ;D ;D

Staying in the Max Cameron camping area if any body is about, you won't miss the big rig camper
Come and say hello.

regards


Wweddo

IM tempted to come down so you can finish the story.

Hey Weddo ... you can't leave us hanging on for the end of the story until after Bathurst !!!!

Davo .

Hey EddyWeddy, this is not Hot Seat, mate...  ::)

"right after this break" means in a few minutes, not a bloody week!

It's a great story; surely you wouldn't leave us waiting weeks for the punchline...

Maybe it was earings in the ash tray like the super cheap as.

This is just like reading a good book and the kids come in wanting all kinds of stuff, next thing you know you have renovated two houses and have them up for sale. Know where is that book.......

Sounds like sloppy gudgeon pins

Gary

Yep; know what you mean, Craig  ::)

We had ours up for sale for ages, but got no offers; 25 years later they're still hanging around costing us a fortune...

however the houses sold fairly quickly

Come on Weddo, you bugger!

 Talking about noises, after my last race at Eastern Creek, the car is running rough. There is a tapping noise, just like a loose tappet. Got it home, loose alright, one of my rockers had decided to dismantle itself. One of the roller housings had come out and was sitting in the head. Bearing on the valve by the rocker body. One buggered valve, looking at the rest, all the exhaust rockers had moved. All sorted now, spare rockers installed, valve fixed.

Wakefield Park the other weekend, first race Saturday, the noise of my exhaust breaking forward of the muffler and dropping onto the track. Nothing like an obstacle for the boys! Got my exhaust back, some welding at home and racing again on Sunday.

Racing sure sorts out your car! Old Holdens aren't really meant for racing, but it sure is fun!

Colin.

Wow Exhaust breaking off is super noisy, I remember going to work one morning at 4:30am driving along through the main street of Rutherford my exhaust did the same thing snapped clean off at the manifold (in my work commuter Camry :o). Will never forget that noise as I pulled up people came out from everywhere wondering what the racket was. A couple of cable ties and off back home 20 minutes of screaming engine noise was enough for me to get it home. Needless to say I had the day off suffering industrial deafness. ;D

"Have a look at this my mate says, I can see the cause of the knocking...."


OK .. arrived back home this afternoon..what a trip.  Six oldies playing up for seven days..oh and Bathurst..brilliant.

Back to the knocking noise..one of the aligning studs in the end of the crank for the flywheel was loose and moving in and out...move out slightly and tap on the back of the block, then move clear...move out slightly and tap on the back of the block, then move clear
This little bloody stud had us strip down the motor. We pull both out, roughen the edges slightly and put back in with some lock tight and fixed the noise.
Might as well strip the oil pump down, so my old mate took it away to overhall it. Came back the next day and said the shaft was bent..happens when they get a bit too hot, put it in the lathe at take about two thou of the bend, turn a bit more length in the step down in the shaft and run a groove a bit further up to carry more oil and bobs your uncle. Time to put it all back together. Spent the next couple of nights getting it all sorted, and back in the car.
Battery in... hit the key... ran for three seconds and turned it off. Gotta fix the accelerator cable return springs, pull off a carbie and fix a leak and a couple of other minor things. But now its off to Bathurst.

Seven day later....OK .. arrived back home this afternoon..what a trip.

Back out to the shed tonight...fixed the carbie and springs, bonnet back on, hit the key and what do ya know..we got a runner!!!

Bit of a tune tomorrow night  and then three days at Baskerville for the "blast from the past" Historics Meetring ...30th anniversary of group N racing.

Beaten by a bloody stud!!..off to bed now

I'll try and get some footage and post it if I can work it out..



Regards

Weddo